Wonder Woman Director & Star Honored By National Board of Review

Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot is celebrating after the National Board of Review announced a special honor for the actress and director Patty Jenkins. Wonder Woman is still on a roll five months after its theatrical release, earning more than $412 million stateside to make it the top domestic release during the summer moviegoing season, plus $409 million more overseas for a massive global cume of $821 million.

Winning as many raves for its engaging narrative as well as its action and adventure, Warner Bros. decided early on that it was going to launch an awards campaign in the fall, including a run for the Academy Awards. Now, that the awards season is officially underway with the reveal of the National Board of Review’s annual winners, Wonder Woman is no doubt off to a roaring start.

Made up of film enthusiasts, filmmakers, academics and students, the NBR kicked off awards season Tuesday by naming Steven Spielberg’s historical drama The Post the Best Film of 2017. In addition, The Post’s stars, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, were named Best Actress and Actor, while Greta Gerwig earned Best Director honors for Lady Bird.

In addition to its winners in 14 categories, the NBR also awarded three special honors, including its Spotlight Award to Gadot and Jenkins “in recognition of their creative collaboration” on Wonder Woman. Gadot expressed her gratitude to Jenkins and the NBR in a tweet, saying, “Wow this is amazing! And I couldn’t ask for anyone else to receive this award with!” See the tweet below:

Whether Wonder Woman’s good fortune during awards season extends to such high-profile honors from major film critics’ circles, the Golden Globes, the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, industry guild honors and lastly, the Oscars, there’s no doubt that the NBR honor will go a long way in the film world realizing its awards potential. Better yet, while Warner Bros. is campaigning in nearly all the major categories (including Best Picture, Best Director for Jenkins and Best Actress for Gadot) and several technical categories for the film, Wonder Woman is also being recognized by the public at-large by readers of TIME magazine.

In poll numbers on TIME’s website with the status of its reader’s poll on who should be named the publication’s “Person of the Year,” Jenkins is among the top 25 vote-getters and the only filmmaker in contention – a huge testament to how much of an impact that Wonder Woman had on the public.